Reflections
by csibutterfly530
Summary: Hermione reflects on her life through photographs on her birthday.


Reflections

Today was Hermione's 70th birthday. She is seated in her kitchen with a box of pictures, on the small table. All she wanted for her birthday was to sit all day reminiscing about the past.

_Today's my birthday  
And all that I want  
Is to dig through this big box of pictures  
In my kitchen 'til the daylight's gone_

The first picture Hermione picked up from the box was of her mother and herself, when she was a mere toddler. Her mother had long brown, curly hair and twinkling blue eyes, that if you didn't know her family history, you would think those eyes to be the same as a certain old Headmaster that Hermione had while attending Hogwarts.

_This one here's my mama with the long brown hair  
I'm forty years older today than she was in that picture there_

She sighs. Her dad had died about 25 years ago, and her mother about 10 years ago. She missed them terribly, but she knew their time had come. She also knew they were together.

_But if life stayed the way it was  
And lovers never fell out of love  
If memories didn't last so long  
If nobody did nobody wrong  
If we knew what we had before it was gone  
If every road led back home  
This would be the very last country song  
_

She set aside that picture and reached for a handful of more pictures. The one on top was of her parents together at their last anniversary together. Hermione smiled and put that one aside as well.

The next one she had was a picture of her own children. The picture was taken at the graduation of her eldest child from Hogwarts. She watched as they interacted with each other. She laughed as Savanna, their eldest kissed Toby on the cheek, and he then proceeded to scrub his cheek in disgust, while his twin, Tawnya giggled away. Then there was Sara who was holding four month old Benjamin. He had been their surprise child.

_These are all my babies  
Lord knows how we survived  
The first one was hard and the last wasn't planned, what a big surprise  
That's him with his daddy's eyes  
_

Their house had always been busy, and she had finally understood Mrs. Weasley, and her need for order. They had struggled with five, how Molly had managed with seven beat her. Merlin only know how they survived.

She set the picture aside, as well as the next three were of the other four's graduation.

The next picture was of her and her husband. It was their wedding picture. It showed them sharing their first kiss as husband and wife, then walking down the isle. How she missed him so much. He had changed a lot since she had first met him. Back then she had been a eleven year old know-it-all and he was the resident snarky, dungeon bat of a potions teacher.

They became friends when she saved him - well Fawkes saved him – after Voldemort's falling. Their relationship had changed again after a year of working together at Hogwarts – she being the new transfiguration teacher, as McGonagall became Headmistress.

They married when Hermione found out she was pregnant. Obviously their love had stayed strong, hence their four other children.

Hermione's eyes watered thinking about him. He had died peacefully in his 90th year six months ago. It had happened only two weeks after their 50th anniversary.

Sometimes when she is alone in her house at night, she can almost imagine him there, watching over her as she slept.

_I loved the man in this one  
It's faded but I don't care  
There are nights when I wake up and know he's beside me I swear  
Sometimes I still feel him there  
_

She put this photo down too, then wiped a few tears from her eyes.

After reaching into the box, she pulled out some pictures that she hadn't seen in a very long time. She smiled at the pictures. They were of her days at Hogwarts. The first was of her and her two best friends, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. It was taken after Gryffindor won the House Cup in their first year. In the background was all of the Gryffindor's in the common room celebrating.

Then next was of the DA (Dumbledore's Army for those of you who don't know) from their 5th year. In the picture besides the three were Ginny, Neville, Luna, George, Fred – bless his soul – and a bunch of other kids in the three houses, not Slytherin of course.

The next one was at Ginny and Luna's Graduation from Hogwarts, where the two plus Hermione, Ron, Harry, Neville George, Bill, Percy, and surprisingly Charlie. Hermione and Neville were dressed in their teaching robes. They were all laughing at something stupid Ron did.

_But if life stayed the way it was  
And lovers never fell out of love  
If memories didn't last so long  
If nobody did nobody wrong  
If we knew what we had before it was gone  
If every road led back home  
This would be the very last country song  
_

Later that day her children and grandchildren, plus the newest great-grandchild sat around the Snape family's living room at the Snape manor. It was not like the Malfoy manor. It was full of life at almost any minute of the day.

"Hey grandma? Do you ever wish anything had ever turned out differently?" asked Megan, her 13 year old granddaughter, daughter of Tobias.

"Well Megan, of course I do sometimes. However if everything stayed the way it was and nothing happened then there would be nothing to live for. So I am pretty happy how everything worked out. Plus if things turned out differently none of you would be here with me and I do not want to think about that." She smiles at her family. "I believe everything happened the way it was supposed to turn out."

_If we knew what we had before it was gone  
If every road led back home  
This would be the very last country song_

The End

The song is called Very Last Country Song by Sugarland.

A.N.: I do not own any of the original characters of Harry Potter, or the song. I merely just play with them.


End file.
